Indigenous entrepreneurship research assists international communities

02 June 2014

University of Newcastle professor shares Indigenous entrepreneurship expertise with researchers at First Nations University of Canada.

Professor Dennis Foley, a professor in the School
of Humanities and Social Science at UON, has been awarded a 2014 Partnership Development Grant by the Canadian Social Sciences
& Humanities Research Council, and was recently in Canada to consult on two
projects. The first involves introducing Indigenous entrepreneurship in high
schools, and the second looks at strategic alliances between First Nations and
industry in the natural resources sector.

Professor Foley said his work with
researchers at First Nations University of Canada has little to do with
academics. It's about exchanging fresh ideas for old problems.

"It's about looking at
things with a unique angle," said Professor Foley. "For example, there may be a
problem on the reserve and people on the reserve can't see it. But if someone
from another reserve comes in, they can see the problem right away. We may
think the same, but we all look at things from different angles."

Professor Foley believes
entrepreneurship is the key to breaking cycles of negativity in Indigenous
communities.

"Financial independence is self-determination.
When you are financially independent, you can have choices. So many good people
don't have any choices. When you are in a poverty cycle or poverty rut or
welfare rut, you don't have choices."

Professor Foley will now head to Halifax
where he will deliver a paper at the Canadian Consortium of Small Business and
Entrepreneurship Conference.

I have a wonderful relationship with
Canada," he said, referring to networks established with the University of
Regina, The Banff Centre, and his previous involvement as a Chief Investigator
in a Social Science and Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRC) grant on
Indigenous entrepreneurship.

After his visit to Canada, Professor Foley is
off to the Dublin Institute of Technology to take up a visiting Fellowship for
a month and continue his field research. He will be collaborating with
Professor Thomas Cooney, a professor in entrepreneurship at the Dublin
Institute of Technology, on Travellers – a traditionally itinerant people of
ethnic Irish origin.

While he is there, he will also deliver two
research papers at the International Consortium of Small Business Conference in
Dublin.

Australia's first professor in Indigenous
entrepreneurship, Professor Foley is deeply interested in the research of
native cultures the world over. He has a strong presence within the local
Indigenous community and business sector and is a sought-after researcher
throughout Australia and internationally.

Recently appointed to the Federal Minister
for Small Business (The Honourable Bruce Billson MP) Advisory Board, as the
Indigenous Adviser on Small Business, Professor Foley is the only academic to
sit on the board.